Apple ticks off trigger-happy Bitcoiners with App Store snub

Ban on trading tools prompts iPhone shoot-em-up

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Apple has issued a series of takedowns on Bitcoin trading apps, prompting outraged users to destroy iPhones in protest.

The company has removed a number of Apps that allow users to trade Bitcoins on their iOS devices. Most recently, Apple pulled the popular Blockchain tool from the App Store, prompting a user backlash amongst Bitcoin aficionados.

According to the developers of Blockchain, Apple gave no notice to as to why it had decided to pull down the Bitcoin trading application. While Bitcoin wallets and transaction tools have been taken down, the App store still offers Bitcoin and cryptocurrency tracking applications.

"These actions by Apple once again demonstrate the anti-competitive and capricious nature of the App Store policies that are clearly focused on preserving Apple's monopoly on payments rather than based on any consideration of the needs and desires of their users," Blockchain said following the takedown.

"The blockchain application is the same one that has been on the App Store for 2 years, with more than 120,000 downloads, no customer complaints, and a broad user base. The only thing that has changed is that bitcoin has become competitive to Apple's own payment system."

Among the protests is a movement born from Reddit which asks users to smash their iOS devices in protest of Apple's takedowns. The Reddit user, who originally went by the moniker "round-peg" (profile since removed and replaced) offered a Nexus 5 to the first five people who posted videos of themselves destroying their iPhones (the contest has since closed).

Users responded with a series of videos featuring iPhones being smashed in a number of mildly inventive and entertaining ways,